Viburnum
by Hrlyqin
Summary: How could he possibly change my entire life if he was going to have me home in five minutes?
1. Chapter 1

**Viburnum**

**A Fanfiction by Hrlyqin **

Believe it or not, I've never really been one to bend the rules.

No, really.

I like rules. They're usually there for a reason, even if we don't like them, and we're better off just following them. Every time that I've really gotten into trouble, it usually involved Sherlock Holmes and you can't blame me for that. People have no idea how... convincing he can be when he wants something.

But left to my own devices, the most rebellious thing I can be accused of is having my iPod on when I'm working. The night shift, and I always get stuck on the night shift...which is so unfair, I mean, just because I don't have a family or a boyfriend or a lot of friends even doesn't mean I don't like my nights free too sometimes...can just get boring, and too quiet, and I get a little bit scared sometimes. So it's nice to have music to keep me company.

This was how it started, another night shift, me by myself doing paperwork on the body that had washed up on the shore line this morning, listening to my Angsty Girl playlist and trying not to let my eyes go cross as I ticked off endless boxes on endless forms.

Tick, tick, tick.

My pen moved in thymine to the music. Tick, tick, tick to the beat, beat, beat. I was so in my own little world that I didn't hear anything, didn't notice anything at all until a hand touched my shoulder.

I was up out of my seat before I could even process that I was moving. I held my pen like a weapon (even though, I know, it was a pen) and faced the intruder angrily. My first thought, honestly, and don't tease, was 'AHHH! Zombie!' because I'm in a morgue in the middle of the night but then my second thought was no, that's ridiculous, zombies don't wear bow ties.

Well, they could, I guess. If they wanted to. If they happened to be buried in one but who would bury a corpse in a bow tie?

So not a zombie at all but clearly someone with something very wrong with them mentally because who sneaks up on a person down here in the dead of night without coughing or clearing their throat or saying hello or anything like that? It's just common sense! It's just...polite!

My anger must have really showed on my face because the visitor raised his hands up in a 'I come in peace' gesture, or maybe a 'look, I'm unarmed' gesture. He was clearly trying to look harmless and maybe hoping I wouldn't stab him with my pen.

"What in the name of everything sacred and holy do you want?" I shouted. Not a great introduction but he had scared the living daylights out of me.

"Or, hello, as they used to say. Do they still say that? What year is this?"

"Excuse me?"

"No..." he said, clearly talking to himself now, "No they must because they say that until well into the Stragix invasion and that hasn't happened yet, the sky's still blue. So, hello."

When I didn't answer he looked confused, twisting his mouth up onto the corner of his face in thought. After a minute, it was like a light bulb lit up over his head. "Oh! I see...that was probably rude of me. Sorry. It's Thursday, isn't it? I never get those right."

"Who...what do you want? I'll call security." I added threateningly.

"On stop it Molly, you're not going to do that."

I looked down but no, my ID badge was sitting on the desk. So how did he know my name? Who was this guy and what did he want? People came down here sometimes for...you know, weird stuff.. They offered me money for body parts or to give them some time alone with a certain corpse (don't think about that too hard, I try not to) and for drugs, a lot. They always wanted to buy or swipe some formaldehyde. I've heard they dip it in things.

But this man didn't look like any of those people. They were either really grubby and sort of scary or very posh and still sort of scary. He just sort of seemed crazy, but...not violent, or anything. I didn't feel like I was going to be raped anytime soon.

(Not that I would entirely mind. It's been a dry season)

He seemed to decide that I was not going to attack, and that I wasn't going to call security either because he walked over to me and first things first, he depenned me, setting it on the desk. Then, levelly, looking into my eyes as if he was going to impart the knowledge of the world to me, he said, "You should get your coat."

"...Sorry, what?"

"Your coat. You're going to need it. Probably. Likely. Maybe not but what the hell, grab your coat and let's go."

"I'm not going anywhere with you! I don't even know you!"

He smiled, as if to say that this problem was easily solved. "I'm the Doctor."

"So are half the people in the building right now."

"Not like me. Molly Hooper, I need you to trust me for five minutes. Give me five minutes right now and I promise I'll make it worth your time. But we need to leave right now."

This is when my naturally obedient nature started to fight with itself. See, I knew I had piles of paperwork to finish, things I had to get done tonight. I'd be in trouble if the day shift came in and they weren't all neatly filled out, filled in and filed away. Besides, this was my job and I took pride in doing it well. Skipping off in the middle of the night was not doing it well.

But there was this man here and he was doing that thing, just like Sherlock did, where he really, really made you want to do what he said. Except with this man, the Doctor, there was no malice, no contempt, no suffocating feelings of superiority coming off him like bad cologne. That was what I think really sold me; he seemed nice. Charming. Crazy but in a nice way. Fun, I guess is how I would put it. He seemed like fun.

And paperwork didn't.

So I went. With every step I took, I reminded myself of all the truly stupid things I've done in my life. I tried to figure out when I would need to get back by, in order to even try to finish all my work. "Sorry," I said as he was leading me down the hall, "but how long do you think this is going to take? I've got work to do and I know you said five minutes but..."

"Five minutes. I promise you that you will be standing just where you are in five minutes."

"What could be so important that it will take less than five minutes?"

Abruptly, he stopped walking. He was in front of me and in front of him was a police box. I was pretty sure that there hadn't been a police box here earlier. What made me so sure? It could be that we were still inside the hospital, in the hallway that led to the auxiliary linen closet. No one really came this way, ever, but I think that if there was a police box randomly sitting here, someone would have mentioned it at some point to me.

"You would be surprised." he said quietly, almost whispering it as he opened up the door.

While he stepped inside of it, I was still staring at the outside. It was so blue. Really, ridiculously blue. It reminded me of deep ocean waters or play doh or flowers in a field or just...just amazingly blue.

It was beautiful.

_Blue-tiful_, I thought to myself, giggling a little bit.

The man, the Doctor, popped his head out of the door. "It's much more impressive on the inside, really!"

Blushing a little at being chided, after running my fingers along the blue outside, I walked through the door.

.

.

.

.

When I was little I had a pop up book all about a princess in a tower. Not just a princess, there was a dragon guarding here and a garden of thorns that the brave prince had to get through before he could fight the dragon, and an evil witch's lair complete with bats hanging from the ceiling and a simmering pot of green ooze. I loved that book. I made my dad read it to me every day. I harassed him about it endlessly, trying to get him to explain to me how the pop ups of the long thing tower and the dragon with it's hideous black wings and the bats in the ceiling could all fit inside the book when it was closed. I thought it was magical. When he finally showed me how the pictures collapsed and all fit together, the way the little folds and cuts made it all possible, I was devastated. I never wanted to read it again after I understood how it worked. The spell was broken and it broke something in me too, something young and innocent...

But I was pretty certain that no matter how long I searched, I wasn't going to find any folds or flaps or strategically placed cuts here...

Or maybe I would...I had no idea...

No idea whatsoever.

"It's bigger..." I paused, "It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside." I was gesturing about, trying to illustrate my point but obviously, the Doctor already knew that. This was his device, or ship, or home maybe.

"Tardis." he told me. "Time and Relative Dimension in Space. It's my own little world in here. Do you like it?"

"It's amazing." I answered honestly.

"And wait until you see where it goes."

"Where does it go?"

"Anywhere." He smiled at me and it was a gleeful one. Full of excitement. Then, like a flash, he was off, running around the central column, pulling levels and flipping switches.

"You might want to hang on to something." he added as an afterthought.

And then I was flung across the floor, my back hitting the door which thank heavens was closed now. Oh this was awful. Not magical or wonderful at all. Terrible. Vomit-inducing. It was going to induce me to vomit.

Then, just as suddenly, with one last loud jerk, it stopped.

The Doctor came over to me with a bright, christmassy grin on his face, took one look at me and frantically started searching the room while I sat on the floor clenching my teeth. It was like being seasick but times a million, or the way I felt the morning after I attended my first and only hen party. But that had passed. So would this. Everything smelled like cedar for some reason...cedar and bacon...there's a girl, Molly. Breathe deep. In and out. In and out.

By the time the Doctor came back, presenting me with an upside down to hat to throw up in, I felt well enough to just laugh at it. Also, it was a really nice hat. I didn't want to ruin it.

"Good, better then! Alright, up you go. Lots to do, planets to see...come on.." My host half-helped, half-pushed me to my feet. I couldn't tell if he was excited that I was okay and our adventure could begin, or just very happy I didn't get sick all over his tardis thingy. Grabbing my coat off the floor, I found myself at the door again and going past it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Viburnum**

**A Fanfiction by Hrlyqin **

**Chapter Two **

I was in a forest. Now, maybe that doesn't seem super impressive, but when I say forest, I mean, it has trees in it but it is so amazing I don't have a word for it.

The trees, they were...well, some were just trees, I saw a lot of pine trees and some birch, but there were others that were purple or red and one that blazed a brilliant orange, like it was the sun. The leaves were leaves but not leaves, some of them were curly or furry and some of them were huge, as big as me. There were nuts that crunched under my feet but of course I wouldn't dare eat them. They didn't look natural. I was standing in the most magical mix of the mundane and the perfectly amazing. It was wonderful.

Everything smelled really amazing too, I should say that. It smelled like summer and rain and delicious.

"Where are we?"

"The Gamma Forest. It's really remarkable. The whole planet, one big forest. I mean, most planets start that way but then they get sentient lifeforms and they start cutting things and burning things and then poof, there it all goes. But this one stuck."

"The...whole planet?"

"Yes, planet. We're on another planet, did I need to add that bit in there? Normally it's obvious."

And then I started panicking.

If we were on another planet how could I breathe? I was breathing but maybe I shouldn't be, who knows what I was breathing in and what if it killed me but he looked fine so maybe it was alright. But no another planet? This didn't happen! None of this happened! I must have hit my head. No, my head felt fine so maybe there was a gas leak or what if Sherlock had slipped me something for a funny experiment and I was laying on the floor of the morgue dying and all of this was my brain cells firing for all they were worth?

Or what if this was all _actually_ happening?

The Doctor was looking at me curiously. Like I was a specimen. Maybe I was. He had his hand under his chin and there was this white and copper thing that he was holding, putting it to his lips like you do with your pen when you're thinking. I wondered if he was wondering if I was going to snap or cry or throw up and if this was something he did a lot and maybe he did this kind of thing to see who could handle themselves and who dissolved into blubbering piles.

I was the blubbering pile type.

Yes, I was going to become a blubbering pile.

I felt myself getting very very dizzy and then having an enormous need to just sit. Sitting would be good. I was going to sit. I slid down the side of the tardis thingy until I was sitting on the forest ground, thick with leaves that were soft and fuzzy and felt like the world's most comfortable bed. Maybe I just needed a nap.

"Molly...Molly, are you sitting again? There's no time for sitting. Come on, up on your feet!" He was pulling me up again for the second time in...well, we had been gone longer than five minutes. It took longer than five minutes to get to a different planet. "Okay now, I know what you're thinking..."

"What am I thinking?"

"You are thinking that this is amazingly cool. That's what people say, right?"

"No...yes...I mean, yes people say that but no, that isn't what I was thinking. I want to know..."

"Well if you're not thinking it yet, you will be. Just give me time." He seemed to think that was hysterical, because for some reason as soon as he finished talking he began laughing, big guffawing laughs as he picked a direction (seemingly at random) and started walking through the trees.

What was he just leaving? Was he going to leave me here? I couldn't just...stay here, by myself. "Hey! Wait!" Oh my god he had long gangly legs and he didn't seem to be stumbling over a single root or fallen branch, while I seemed to be catching all of them.

We walked, him taking the lead and all but sauntering through the forest and me bumbling around behind him. It took all my efforts just to keep up. The only thing I really got to say to him was, "This is even cooler than the tardis."

"No it's not." he protested grouchily. "The Tardis has a swimming pool."

"Oh, well...excuse me then. I stand corrected."

I was worried he was going to be really cross with me over that but he grinned, glad to see that yes, I was all on board with the notion that the tardis was much more amazing because it had a pool. After that, we just kept walking but in silence.

Eventually, we came to a clearing. Again, like forest, clearing didn't even begin to describe it accurately. This beautiful forest suddenly fell away, like a waterfall dropping off a cliff, to give way to a clearing where the trees, instead of surrounding you like a blanket, were placed like houses, not exactly in neat little rows but it gave you the impression of them. It was so clearly a neighborhood, all it needed was a Tesco and a church, but it was all trees.

The first ones almost looked like proper buildings, little box shapes with open fronts, like newspaper stands. But the wood was wrong. It took me a minute to figure it out but once I had it, it was obvious, it looked dead. So maybe if the people here had some kind of ...reverence or symbiosis (oh, good words Molly, welcome back!) with the trees, they only cut up ones that were already dead.

_Sort of like me._

Looking at them now, she could see people inside...they really were exactly like little newspaper stands, or kiosks. A man was selling some sort of pies out of one of them, at another one a woman was handing out wooden spoons and little wooden bottles of things, maybe it was medicine? Was she a doctor?

Beyond that, there was this big arena sort of thing, with log benches. It looked just like a summer camp. In the middle there was a big ring of stones and then a fire that was being watched over and tended to by more people. It must be a very important job.

Then there were, well, tree houses. But not like forts stuck up in the middle of trees. Like trees that were hollow inside and had little bits of curtain or pelt hanging in front of them for doors and small little porthole windows in the trees. These trees, they were the size of...really big trees. Like elephants, but trees. Some of the windows went up very high. I wondered if they had stairs inside.

"Now, this is a village." The Doctor was explaining, speaking very slowly and clearly to someone who had needed it explained to them that she was on a different planet. "There's little villages scattered all over. I can show you more, but...really, they're sort of all the same. It's still a wonderful little planet, very inventive people. Exciting but not too exciting, really, positively perfect for you. All sort of sense and order, all the villages in a little line along the river. Not that they planned it that way. Most civilizations need a source of water, unless you're the Camsazi, then that is the last thing you want! But, for people-type people, they need water and the only water in the forest is the r-."

He stopped, very abruptly, so much so that I almost smashed into the back of him because I was following so closely behind. He turned quickly around, so that his boy tie was sort of jammed in my face, but he didn't even seem to notice me at the moment. Whatever was wrong, something was really wrong. Really, really wrong because he had that look. I've seen it a million times. The look of terrible realization. This strange man who had dragged me (in a phone box, still working on why it was a phone box) to another planet was seriously freaked out right now.

This wasn't really comforting.

I took a step back so his bow tie wasn't trying to go up my nose anymore and waited. I could all but see the gears going round in his head and then, finally, the look of terrible realization was replaced by one of utter sadness. Another look I was familiar with and it made me want to hug him. He looked like his entire world was collapsing and I felt so bad for this strange, very insane man. Then, I figured, he came to my job and stuck me in the tardis thing and now we were on another planet so really, who was I to keep acting like this was just another night?

So, swiftly, before I could really think too much about it and then stop myself, I swooped forward and hugged him. He needed it. You could tell.

"Doctor," I asked while he made an awkward, somewhat limp attempt to hug back, "What's wrong?"

"I'm...getting old. Stupid and old. Dear Miss Molly, I'm so sorry. This was supposed to be something fun for you."

"Are we...in danger?"

"Yes."

"From what?"

"I don't know." He stepped back from me and seemed to get his bearings. I watched the reassembly of him, toes to head, him gathering up himself (I did it every morning in the mirror, I knew what it looked like) until finally he broke out into a smile that was just as crazy as his regular one and looked almost genuine. "Time travel, it's funny sometimes."

"Wait...time travel? I thought we were doing space travel."

"Time AND space, yes. Do they need to be exclusive? Nevermind. I'm just going to...oh! Look over there, there's bunnies. All you humans love bunnies, don't you? Go have a look."

And then he was gone, running back through the trees.

I watched him go and had to shake my head. My life, honestly, was boring. I was the boring one in my family. My Christmas cards were dreadfully dull. So why were maniac geniuses always paying me so much mind? Well, at least he wasn't Sherlock in the sense that so far he hadn't asked me for any body parts. So maybe this would all turn out okay. Maybe he...forgot his keys, or something?

My natural instinct to do as I'm told kicked in about then and I found myself turning away from the direction he had run off in and towards the bunnies.

There was a little pen made up of twigs and branches and bits of vine. It didn't really look as effective as a fence would have been, or cages, but those would have required chopping down live wood and that wasn't really a big thing here, I was getting. Either way, it must work because inside hopped five fat rabbits in varying shades of brown, orange and red. Like autumn leaves with ears and twitchy noses.

"Hello." I said to the girl who was tending to them. "Are these...your rabbits?" I asked somewhat stupidly.

"Yes ma'am." Her response was eager and friendly, making me feel less socially stunted. "My Dad raises some for food but these are mine. I'm training them up to deliver messages to the next village."

So it wasn't friendliness but pride in her work. Well, good for her. I wasn't sure how good rabbits would be as carrier pigeons (carrier bunnies?) but it was a fine hobby for a girl and she seemed to take it seriously. In a further attempt to show off, she plucked out the largest rabbit and put him in my arms so I could feel how strong his legs were and how healthy he was.

"This one can run the fastest. He can get to the river and back in an hour. It takes me three!"

"Oh he's adorable." I know he was a mighty messenger beast but he had such a cute little nose and his ears were all flopping around, brushing on my arms. I couldn't help it. "Does he have a name?"

"Atrix. These here are Sigs, Asa, Kiri and ….Fluffy." she finished off. I smiled at the last one and she looked embarrassed and then smiled back. "My sister named that one."

"They all look like they'll make really great messengers." I scratched Atrix between the ears. She had mentioned the river. River, was that what the Doctor had been about to say before he ran off. "This river, is it that way?" I pointed in the general direction he had taken off in.

"Yes, it's a good walk but we're one of the closest. It's lucky because we get a lot of traders on their way to the water. Most of them are pretty nice, they like my rabbits. Except...this one group, the Northers. They're awful."

"Really?"

"Their trades aren't fair, their goods are shoddy, my Dad says. They're always trying to trick us. A group came by last month, selling cheese but it was awful. There was a big fight with the Matron and them, she kicked them out. They say..." her voice dropped low, "that they cut down trees in their village. Not because they're sick or anything, but just...because."

Clearly she was horrified by this so I nodded in agreement to it's awfulness. After our mutual agreement that trees are people too, I handed the rabbit back to her and offered her my hand in the same gesture. With practiced ease, she put the animal into the crook of her arm and shook with me.

"I'm Molly Hooper."

"Lorna Bucket. It's nice to meet you ma'am."

"Nice to meet you too Lorna. Do you know where I could maybe get something to eat while I wait for my friend? I don't have any money." I added.

She either didn't understand 'money' or it didn't matter because after she made sure the animals were all settled in for the night (it seemed to involve spreading some kind of paste on the ground, maybe it kept them in by the smell?), she invited me to follow her.

It didn't even really strike me that I was talking to an alien, this girl. She seemed so much like my nieces, right down to the way she wanted to show me she was smart by telling me everything about each shop or house or person that we passed. By the time I got to what I assumed was her tree, I was dizzy with information and most of it was idle gossip.

Neither her mom nor her Dad were home, so she let me inside and started busying herself in the small kitchen-y area off to my right while I looked around. The tree was enormous, like most of the ones in the clearing and I could take 10 steps from one side of the hollowed out inside to the other. There was the kitchen part, which I only assumed because there were baskets and grass woven buckets of food and some water (from the river I heard so much about?). On the other side was the living area, with a few fine wooden chairs and soft grass mats, as well as what must be evidence of trade with other cultures; some needles and thread and beautiful fabric which I assumed to belong to Lorna's mother (it was all silk, not cotton or any plant-based fabric). Her needle work was lovely, I wondered if she had taught Lorna? There were also some copper glasses in a little stack, some flat plastic sheets that displayed pictures when I picked them up and, amusing me for some reason, a row of wind chimes secured by the 'window' of the room. At the very back there were stairs made out of the natural wood and shape of the tree, a thin row going up over our heads. I rejoiced that there were stairs, just as I suspected, and my eyes went up to a little loft area over our heads which must be for sleeping, before the tree closed in over the home.

It was delightful. Sparse and clean but it all seemed...whimsical, for some reason. I loved it instantly.

Lorna served me some berries and nuts in a lovely leaf bowl. It was a nice snack, honestly. The berries were juicy but not exactly like any I had tasted before. They were sort of like strawberries and honeysuckle mixed together. The nuts tasted like nuts but were delicious. While we nibbled, she talked to me more about her house, her parents, her town. It was weird but she never once asked me who I was or where I came from. Either people randomly dropped by to pet bunnies and eat fruit a lot or she just accepted that I wasn't any harm.

We had just broached the subject of her sister Lana and her stupid rabbit named when we heard shouts from outside. Looking at each other for a minute, we set our leaves on the ground and went out to see what was going on.

The Doctor had returned and he was speaking to a group of people, maybe twenty in all. Whatever he was saying, I couldn't make it out but it was causing the group to start shouting and running to their tree-homes. As a few would take off, more would come to see what was going on and then they too would become frantic. A man ran past me and scooped Lorna up. Her father I guess. I didn't even get to say goodbye to her.

Instead, I dove into the group and fought my way up to the front. "Doctor, what's happening?" I asked him urgently.

It was getting chaotic. People were dashing in all directions, grabbing things up and heading off into the woods, all in the direction that the doctor had taken off towards in the first place. They were frightened, and it was frightening to watch.

"Molly," he turned to me. "I'm so sorry."

"Yes, you did that already, apologizing I mean. Just tell me what's going on."

"There is another village, not far from here, and apparently they aren't really the best of friends right now."

"The Northers?" I asked.

I'd done a clever trick, knowing that, so he patted me on the head. "Northers, right."

"What have they done?"

"Remember that I promised you that you would be home in five minutes. I gave you my word. So there is absolutely no reason to worry. It will all be fine. Maybe we can do another planet after this, an extra. Like a bonus. Love bonuses. We could do something tropical."

"Doctor what's going on?" I demanded more insistently.

"It's really clever, actually. Exactly what I would do if I lived here and I was really angry and I wanted to drive someone out of their home."

"WHAT?"

He looked so sad. So worried. But I wasn't going to hug him again. In fact, I was going to smack him across the face if he didn't tell me.

When he finally answered, I changed my mind. No, I would have rather not known. But I insisted so he told me.

"They set the woods on fire."


	3. Chapter 3

**Viburnum**

**A Fanfiction by Hrlyqin **

**Chapter Three**

"They did...what? Excuse me?"

"They set the woods on fire." he repeated.

"But...the whole planet is woods! They set the planet of fire?"

_See Molly,_ I thought, _this is what happens when you go on adventures. Planets get set on fire. You would never have to worry about a planet being set on fire if you were back at your desk where you belong. Except if the atmosphere spontaneously combusted...or...global warming or something. But still, you would not be in the middle of a whole planet of woods when the woods were on fire._

This was a perfectly sound reason to never have adventures ever again.

This was a perfectly sound reason to just stay at home for the rest of my life.

"Yes, the planet's on fire. But don't worry, I've got everything under control."

I wanted to kick him. I really wanted to just...kick him very hard.

But kicking him wouldn't change the fact that the woods were on fire. That the planet was all woods and they were on fire and he said he had things under control so, I was ready to listen.

"Alright, what do we do?"

"Run."

"Run where?" I gestured around. Trees, more trees, and for a change of pace, more trees.

"The river. We need to get all of these people to the river. At least there they'll have a little more protection. And then..."

"And then?" I prompted.

He spun around on me so that we were face to face. Really, he could have just turned to look at me but he instead spun in almost an entire circle and then stared me down. "Molly, do you trust me?"

I gulped. "Sure."

"So trust me that I've got a plan." he finished and then, without letting me reply, he took off again.

I thought to myself that there went a confusing man running as fast as possible away from me. This was a metaphor for my life.

But what was Molly Hooper good for if not following orders with little original thought? So I played crossing guard to an alien race of scared, frightened people and helped them get to the river, answering questions as best I could without screaming that I didn't know anymore than they did.

Really, having no idea what was going on but pretending to have a small idea of what might be going on came quite naturally to me.

The problem was, once we got to the river, well, it was a river. There wasn't any magical rescue squad or waterfall to another planet or anything that would pass for a solution. So I did my best to continue keeping people calm and assuring them that the Doctor had everything under control. He asked me to trust him, and I was trying really really hard to. We were at the river for a good...fifteen minutes before I cornered him as he was pacing by some rocks, water kicking up around his ankles.

"Um...excuse me, Doctor, I don't mean to bother you but the people are getting really nervous and I was wondering if there was anything I could do to help you with your plan that you assured me that you had?"

"Sorry, what?" he looked at me and I could tell by the expression on his face that he had forgotten who I was for a second. "Oh, right, the plan! Of course. The plan. My plan. The plan that I have got." he said slowly, stretching it out.

"You have a plan, right?"

"I said I did, didn't I?" he smiled and twisted at his bow tie which really, the world was on fire and he still had his tie on?

I watched him twist at his stupid bow tie and rub his boots in the mud a little then go back to his pacing in the shallow water, letting his lower lip stick out while he muttered to himself. He had a torch in his hand, coppery with a weird green light and he kept fiddling with it, tossing it, catching it, tossing it, catching it.

Unbidden, Sherlock Holmes popped up in my mind. This wasn't exactly out of the ordinary (no need to really talk about that), but now he was doing that thing. That incredibly annoying thing that he did where he pointed out what he thought was obvious to people but was actually really hard to notice. Like he was leaning over my shoulder, I heard him in my ear, "Molly, does this look like a person who knows what the next step is? You're more intelligent than that."

And, just like every other time, Sherlock was right.

"Oh...my god. You don't have ANY idea what to do now, do you?"

"No." He laughed, a nervous laugh. "I mean, yes, I told you, there's a plan."

"What. Is. The. Plan?"

"The plan is that I get all these people to the river, near the water where they'll be relatively protected from the fire and then I'll have a brilliant idea about how to fix everything."

"That's your plan?"

"Hey," he said defensively, "my plans _always_ work."

I hauled off and slapped him across the face. "Your plan is to have an idea? An idea is your plan? I cannot BELIEVE this. That's your plan..._hello, I'm the doctor, I know that we're all going to burn to death but don't worry because I'm going to have an idea!_...of all the stupid, foolish, dangerous...I don't know who you think you are, swooping by in the middle of the night to drag me off when I had paperwork to do. I'll have you know that I don't need you to show up with a magical blue tardis thingy if I want to deal with know-it-all arrogant jerks, I CAN DO THAT AT HOME! And you know, it's not even that impressive, your tar-box-thing, just because it has a -"

I stopped.

I was going to stop anyway, because really, I absolutely never lost my temper like that. I mean, I really wanted to sometimes, to tell people that no one needed their pompus strutting around just to solve problems, I just never ever did because it wouldn't solve anything. Now, I didn't feel bad about yelling. I thought I was entirely in the right to give him a good verbal whipping and he didn't even look angry. He was rubbing his cheek like he couldn't figure out why it felt that way and he was laughing. Saying something about how I reminded him of someone and boy was she ever a handful, then he was going on and on about mates, I had no idea why because I was trying to think.

I finally flapped my hands at him. "! I'm trying to think."

So I was giving it to him good, telling him how he wasn't all so super impressive, with his tardis and it's swimming pool.

Swimming pool!

"Doctor, you said earlier that the tardis-thingy, it has a swimming pool, right?"

"Yeah, so?...so I can get the tardis, I can fly it so it is over the fire and I can dump the pool out and try to put out the fire and then the fire will be out! Good girl Molly, see I knew you would come in handy." He clapped his hands together in delight. "Now, I just have to make a mad dash through a burning wood to get to the Tardis. Haven't done that in awhile. Not since Sherwood, god that was a pink nightmare..."

He was getting carried away again, I could tell, so before he could get any further I asked, "Will that work? I mean, it's a pool."

"It's a Tardis pool." he replied like that explained everything.

"Okay." I nodded.

"So, right, I'm just going to go off and do that. Be back in a tick."

Wait, he was going to just leave me here? What if he didn't come back? What if he died? What if we got attacked?

Wait, he was just going to leave me here, in some kind of safety, instead of making me go with him?

"Good luck!" I called out as he disappeared into the forest.


	4. Chapter 4

**Viburnum**

**A Fanfiction by Hrlyqin **

**Chapter Four**

So while he was off having a very dangerous adventure, I was babysitting.

I liked Lorna, I really did. I related to her very well, actually, which should bother me considering I had a few decades on her, but she was nice to talk to, she listened, that was refreshing. But I couldn't help being nervous that I would say the wrong thing to her and traumatize her forever.

The thing was, she was handling this much better than I was. I was making a mental list of all the things I would never do if I got burnt to a crisp tonight (_go skinny dipping, see Mount Fuji, buy a houseboat, wear a miniskirt, I'd never just walked up to a stupid idiot genius I knew and kissed him as hard as I could, or tried out for a musical..._). All the while, I was also carrying on a conversation with young Lorna of the rabbits.

"So who is he, your friend, the Doctor man?"

"He's not really my friend." I corrected her. 

"Oh, is he your boyfriend then?"

"Heavens, no. He's, um, a little weird for me."

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

I'm speaking to an alien child on another planet and my love life (or lack thereof) is still the topic of conversation. Perfect.

"No, not anymore."

"I don't either." she said, as if she was trying to reassure me. Of course, it had exactly the opposite effect. "Do you think my rabbits will be okay?"

Thank God a change in subject. "Well...I'm sure they hopped away."

"Yeah, I didn't think so either. So the Doctor, he's going to put out the fire?"

"Yes, he has a swimming pool, in his...er, in his phone box, and he's going to fly it over the fire and...it's a really good plan." I promised her.

"What's a swimming pool?"

Right, big forest planet, probably not very big on luxury items. "It's like a big, man-made lake."

"A what?"

"A big, man-made...pond?"

"Sorry," she shook her head, "I've got no idea what you mean."

"A river, but instead of being a big long thing, it's a short deep thing. There's lots of water."

Now that she understood what I was talking about, she looked even more skeptical. I couldn't blame her. But how could I explain that nothing about tonight made sense so really, this had as much of a chance of working as anything?

"I know how that sounds." I said, leveling with her. "But the Doctor, he does stuff like this all the time." It seemed like he probably did, anyway. "It never makes sense, but it always works. So there's nothing to worry about, okay?"

She still seemed unconvinced, but maybe just so we could be a little less frightened together, she nodded in agreement. Even I was comforted by my own lie. I didn't even exactly know it was a lie anyway, right? For all I knew, that was exactly what he did. This strange person with a strange space ship that wasn't a ship but a phone box for some reason. Nothing, the ship, the hair, the clothes, nothing made the least bit of sense but he seemed so confident about all of it, like this was what he did all the time. Granted, yes, it was sort of my plan too but he went along with it like it was the best thing he had ever heard. I really didn't know the slightest thing about him but it just fit that he hopped around time and space, popping up and abducting women, getting them into trouble then coming up with impossible plans to fix things.

Yes, that seemed like him precisely.

Lorna wasn't the only one with questions, so after I had my moment of solitude and thought, I found myself spreading the mythology I had created, that this mad man with a blue box was going to save everyone, because that was what he did. I tried to keep my tales to a logical, sparse minimum, but I might have thrown in things like the Loch Ness Monster and giant space robots, just to make it seem more credible, you know?

I was in the midst of telling everyone about the Doctor facing off against the dread vampire Edward and his nasty clan of sparkly vegetarians when I noticed something. Or, more correctly, everyone seemed to notice something at once.

There was no fire.

The flames that were closing on should have surely now been upon us, but they weren't. The air wasn't alive with heat anymore. I couldn't hear the crackling of the forest ablaze. All those fancy things added up to the simple conclusion that hey, the fire was out!

People started whispering among themselves, then there were a few celebratory whoops, some hugs, and scattered clapping. Everyone seemed ready to celebrate but it was like they were waiting on something. I couldn't quite figure out what, until the Doctor showed up out of the woods again (I didn't know why he didn't just park his tardis thing right in the middle of the water instead of walking, that's what I would do). They had clearly been waiting for him. Because when he returned, he got a hero's welcome.

Everyone wanted to embrace him. All the men patted him on the back. Children hugged him around the knees. He made himself part of the party, cheering along with everyone else. It was a very effective way to not take credit for everything without being a buzz kill about it. Although no one struck up a fire (there had been enough of that), the celebrating went on deep into the night.

I was crouched up against a tree yawning, the parasite like but charming Lorna curled up next to me fast asleep with her parents and sister laying not far off. These people seemed to have no problem resting in the damp mud or the mossy earth while the rest carried on the revelry. I was about to pass out myself, honestly, when the Doctor managed to disengage himself from two very excited teenagers and wander over to me.

"So, the magical swimming pool worked, huh?"

"I told you, it's a tardis swimming pool."

I laughed, careful not to wake up Lorna. "I was a fool to ever doubt you." I told him, only half-joking.

"Yes, you were." he replied in all seriousness. "Doesn't seem like anyone else was worried though. Did you know I single-handedly fought off an army of space ninjas?"

"I might have...told people a few stories, just so they wouldn't panic."

"Perfectly understandable," he waved away any anger he might have had about me lying. "There really are space ninjas, you know, but I never fought them. They're actually quite friendly. Love knitting."

"Knitting? You're making that up."

"Not at all. They made me this sweater one Christmas, it was the seventh most ugly garment the universe has ever seen."

I was laughing again, and I had to shush myself and him. "You'll wake them up."

"You should sleep. Lots of walking tomorrow."

I yawned again. I was too tired to argue. "Are you going to rest?"

"No." he shook his head. "Someone's got to keep the party going."

I heard him whispering to me, telling me to sleep peacefully, as I drifted off.

.

.

.

When I woke up, the sun was shining brightly and everyone seemed to be rinsing themselves off in the water as best they could, collecting anything they had brought and preparing for the trek back. The Doctor hadn't been lying, we really did turn around and walk all the way back to the village.

I didn't know what I expected to find, but what I saw was heart breaking. All the little shops, the tree houses, Lorna's little rabbit warren, everything was gutted and blackened. We had traveled the path of the fire as we made our way back, so I had already seen the damage it did to the wilderness. But to see people's homes was a different thing entirely and I found myself wiping at my eyes.

One thing I hadn't been expecting was the group of Northers that had posted themselves in this ruined place. There was maybe two dozen of them in the center of where town had stood and when we came upon them, we realized that there were more that had been hidden in the burnt out trees. Very quickly, the survivors found themselves surrounded. I glanced at the Doctor and he seemed perfectly calm. I wondered if he **had** been expecting exactly this.

"Northers?" he asked.

The villagers nodded.

He spoke to the leader of the group, a man with dirty blond hair and four teeth in his mouth. "So you're the lot that decided to burn down the woods?"

The other man seemed a little dumbfounded. A perfectly calm guy with silly hair coming out of nowhere with a group of survivors. He obviously **hadn't** expected this.

Without letting him talk, the Doctor continued, "Well hello, I'm the Doctor, I'm the one who put out the fire because I guess you didn't realize that an entire planet made of wood might not be a good place to start one. It happens. We don't always think our plans through. It's a good thing I was here to ruin yours."

The blond man with no teeth but, I noticed, a very very big stick that looked pointy (they all had sticks, I could see that now, and yes they were sticks but I didn't doubt they were deadly) opened his mouth up to reply but the Doctor didn't allow it. "I say it's a good thing because if I had come here today or next week instead of last night and found these people slaughtered, their homes destroyed and you here instead, what do you think would have happened? Now take whatever you're thinking and make it a lot worse because I do not take kindly to warlords who murder their own kind over real estate."

"We are the cl-"

"Did I say YOU COULD SPEAK?" The Doctor shouted. I jumped back. I don't think I was the only one, either. "I HAD TO RESCUE AN ENTIRE POPULACE BECAUSE OF YOU. THEIR HOMES ARE GONE, BECAUSE OF YOU. THEY HAVE TO START OVER, BECAUSE OF YOU! DO YOU REALLY THINK ..." He stopped himself. It was like a thunderstorm putting itself back into the bottle. His face, which had been twisted in such a perfect expression of contempt, smoothed out and he waited a full thirty seconds before he continued. "Do you really think that anything you have to say will make any of that alright?"

He waited, I guess for a nod, certainly not for a verbal response, but he didn't get any. "I'm a little bit off today, I guess, I'm losing my temper. No one wants to see that. Certainly not you. Things could go badly. So what I would do right now if I were you is I would take my silly little war sticks and go home. And the next time that you think you might want to come back, remember, you don't know what you're going to find. Maybe a scared group of people, but maybe **me**. I'd think about that."

Then, he turned his back on them. He was looking right at me, and I'm sure my expression was asking him if he was crazy because he just shrugged. Almost immediately, and without a word spoken, the Northers began to leave.

He had just bluffed away an angry horde.

Oh my Dad would just love him.

It was strange after that, saying goodbye to the unnaturally cheerful people who now thought the Doctor was more of a hero than ever. They certainly bought whole heartedly his threat to check in on them from time to time and make sure the wolves stayed at bay. I was in shock that he had turned around a war without even punching anyone. That was a trick I would really, really like to know.

So after getting hugs from Lorna, who was already planning her rabbit experiment 2.0 and only a little bit teary over the first batch, I was in the open woods again as we went back to the Tardis. I asked him if he really would come back to make sure the Northers were behaving.

"I could." he told me. "But I won't need to."

"How does someone, and I'm sorry because I don't want to offend you but how does someone...well, like you...know so much about psychological warfare?"

"Someone like me?" he asked.

"Sort of a crazy big kid with a bow tie."

"Oh right, that sort of like me. I wasn't always like this, you know."

"Were you in a war?"

"The last war. The only war."

"Did you lose people?"

He smiled, and it was sad. I could see, underneath the floppy hair and muddy boots, such great age and sorrow. "I lost everyone." he answered quietly.

I was going to ask more, once I could figure out how, and what exactly to ask, but as quickly as it had come the moment was gone. He was back to dancing around the blue box and telling me to hang on as he jerked the controls and we went spinning off through space and time. Then, there was no time as he was showing me out the door and to the nearest clock back at St. Barts.

"Look, I said five minutes and I'm two minutes early! I'm never early! Well, there was that one time with the library but..." he looked at my feet worriedly, but no, it wasn't my feet, he was looking past them and at my shadow. He seemed to confirm something to himself and then he smiled. "Two minutes early!"

"I guess I should...say thank you?"

"Yes...oh, you're welcome." he added. "This is odd, and for me, to say something is odd, well...it is though. You're here and I'm here and normally, this is the part where I would ask you if you wanted to come with me and see the universe."

"But you're not?"

Of course he wasn't. He was this exciting insane creature and he led what was clearly an exciting, insane life. Why would he want Molly around? I thought it was wild when I put bourbon in my ice cream. I didn't have an adventurous bone in my body and I didn't laugh coyly in the the face of danger. I screamed.

I wasn't brave.

I wasn't interesting.

I guess I wasn't traveling partner material.

"I would." He touched my face, bringing my chin around to make sure I looked at him. "I would ask you to come see the stars with me, but I can't."

"No, it's alright, I understand." This was every time I'd ever been dumped times a thousand.

"You're too important."

"I'm sorry?"

"There's too much for you to do. I know you don't realize it yet, but you are so important here and now. I couldn't risk what would happen if you weren't in the right places at the right times."

"But I'm not important. If you don't want me to come along, I get it, you don't need to say all of this."

"You **are** important. Remember that for me. One day it will mean everything. You, Molly Hooper, are important, **you do count.** You've always count. People will trust you, and you will make all the difference. Will you remember that?"

"I will." I promised, still not understanding.

"My Molly. Brave Molly." He hugged me and I hugged him back. "So important. I may come back, you know."

"I bet you say that to all the displaced forest people and lonely girls."

He laughed and I knew that he wouldn't come back. Even if he did, not for a very long time. I had only just met him. I didn't even really like him. But he was leaving and I didn't want him to go.

I let go, or he did maybe, and then with a snap of his fingers he went back inside his tardis. I stood back, waving, and before he shut the door, he waved back to me and then he was gone.

Tonight I had an impossible adventure. I helped save a planet. I saw the stars. I traveled father than most humans ever would, and I met a stranger that I would miss forever. I'd learned something too, that I needed to remember because I promised him I would.

I, Dr. Molly Hooper, counted.

**The End. **


End file.
